Season 5 of THIS IS US Covers Everything From Long-Standing Family Resentment to Current Social Change

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede The U.S. election, COVID-19, fights that have been building for 40 years, and one of the most terrifying villains in the history of the movies. Believe it or not, those were just a few of the many subjects discussed during a wide-ranging virtual interview with creator and executive producer Dan Fogelman, and the main cast of THIS IS US, which returns for Season 5 with a two-hour premiere, Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET on CTV. The cast members participating in the group interview with TV reporters were Sterling K. Brown, Milo Ventimiglia, Mandy Moore, Justin Hartley, Susan Kelechi Watson, Chrissy Metz, and Chris Sullivan. Let’s get to the terrifying movie villain first. It came up when Fogelman was explaining that, because of the delays related to the pandemic, he has essentially been working on these first two hours of the new season since late February. “It’s the longest I think I’ve ever worked on anything in my life, just because we were making the decision to have COVID, as well as Black Lives Matter, woven into the show,” Fogelman said. “Our choice has always been to be apolitical. We don’t speak of Democrat, or Republican, or ‘You Know Who.’ It’s more just about American life. Considering where our show lives, with this American family that has a lot of different pockets, and spans time, it felt almost irresponsible not to kind of take on the moment.” With expert comic timing, Brown said: ” ‘You Know Who’ … is that Lord Voldemort?” Of course, Lord Voldemort is the main antagonist in the Harry Potter films, in which the other characters will not dare utter his name. So even with the U.S. election coming up next week, that must be who Fogelman was referring to, right? The pandemic has obviously affected how all TV shows are produced, but Ventimiglia joked that because his character, Jack Pearson, exists in a different time frame than most of the other adult characters, he never got to see his fellow actors much anyway. “I don’t know what has changed – there’s a pandemic going on and you’re away from people? I know nothing about it,” Ventimiglia said with a laugh. “Personally, I’m just grateful to see them about as much as I did before. Probably a lot less. But you know, moments like this (the group interview) is where I would usually see Chrissy, and Sully, and Sterl, and Sue, and Justin, and everyone. So I guess it’s a little bit of a bummer these days. But we’re all here and we’re working, and that’s the most important part.” Brown spoke directly to Ventimiglia and paid him a compliment: “Just to echo that, you normally do a really good job of coming to visit folks on set for different scenes and whatnot. And it’s not necessarily in the protocols this year.” The realization dawned on Ventimiglia, who said, “Oh, yeah, that is actually the most heartbreaking thing. I would just pop in on set, and I would watch, and bring my cameras, and I would hang out. So now I can’t.” This time it was Sullivan with the perfect comic timing: “It’s always really distracting,” he said with feigned annoyance, and all the other actors cracked up. As for plot specifics, Fogelman said that the epic fight between Randall (Brown) and Kevin (Hartley) at the end of Season 4 will continue to be a major factor in Season 5. “When we took the fight to that place, it was never intended to be like, they make up the next week or the next episode,” Fogelman said. “That’s a fight that has been building for 40 years between these two boys, and now men, who grew up in the same house. It’s in the front and centre of our premiere, and it will be in the front and centre for quite a bit.” billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv